Thursday 28 May 2020

Star Wars plots from Flash Gordon episode titles

Jamming on Star Wars adventure ideas with as little forethought as possible, taking titles from the first and third Flash Gordon serials. I felt that the second had too many proper nouns in its titles.

Classic “small crew of Rebels, somebody probably uses the Force” kind of setup, and introducing a lot of supervillain-style Imperials and other enemies...

“The Planet Of Peril”
A daring infiltration into an Imperial weapons facility - a planet given over to forges and test beds, overseen by a mad scientist - to destroy a prototype of terrifying power!

“The Tunnel Of Terror”
An underground Rebel base threatened by an Imperial drilling machine the size of a skyscraper! Can the team board it and divert its path?

“Captured By Shark Men”
An Imperial submarine! Aquatroopers! Threatening a Quarren outpost under the seas of an isolated mineral-rich planet...

“Battling The Sea Beast”
The Imperial sub awakens a monstrous animal from the ocean depths! Can the Rebels stop it before it destroys the Quarren city?

“The Destroying Ray”
Some kind of superweapon. Have we done that? ;) Okay, more...
A beam that kills humanoid beings but leaves targeted worlds almost untouched, ripe for conquest! As the prototype Destroyer rises from the Imperial forge planet, only the Rebels can stop its trail of ruin!

“Flaming Torture”
A Rebel operative captured by one of the Empire’s sinister agents! Held on a space station controlled by a cold-blooded warden, dangerously close to a star - only one way in or out. Can our heroes rescue him, at the risk of burning up?

“Shattering Doom”
A weapon that can freeze an entire planet!

“Tournament Of Death”
Captured by bounty hunters and taken to the black market space station Bazaar, the Rebels’ best fighter is forced at stun rod point to join a gladiatorial battle!

“Fighting The Fire Dragon”
A disturbance in the Force leads to the site of an ancient battle - and a confrontation with a Dark Side warrior who can summon flames from thin air!

“The Unseen Peril”
An Imperial assassin who can disguise himself perfectly as anyone! How do you root him out before he strikes?

“In The Claws Of The Tigron”
A decadent nobleman captures the Rebels and drops them on a massive game preserve to be hunted by the monstrous native predators!

“Trapped In The Turret”
Their sabotage mission discovered, the Rebels have only moments to escape a towering Imperial fortress as its power centre goes critical!

“Rocketing To Earth”
As the fortress-ship falls from the sky, the Rebels race to escape as corridors turn to chasms, pursued by Imperial commandos swooping after them with jetpacks!

Okay, I have made an executive decision not to do Flash Gordon's Trip To Mars as it has too many proper nouns in the titles, and go on to Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe. (n.b. He does not.)

“The Purple Death”
An outbreak of a plague threatens a planet home to billions! Can the Rebels deliver the cure through an Imperial blockade?

“Freezing Torture”
An Imperial prison ship with hundreds, possibly thousands of political prisoners in cryofreeze!

“Walking Bombs”
An unfeeling partisan sabotages a Droid repair facility, so that every Droid in a city, Imperial or civilian, has a faulty fuel cell primed to explode on her signal!

“The Destroying Ray”
Yes, they used this title twice in three serials. Okay, this time...
A weapon that causes incoherent rage in sapient beings, an overwhelming urge to destroy! And the Rebels have to get through an affected city to deactivate it!

“The Palace Of Horror”
Archaeologists on an ancient colony world unearth a castle deliberately buried a thousand years ago, and everyone connected to the Force in the system feels a dreadful chill...
(I could also just say Screaming Citadel.)

“Flaming Death”
For the 40th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back:
Pursued from a base on a gas giant by TIE Fighters and Jet Troopers, the Rebels’ ship is separated from the evacuation fleet and has to hide in a burning nebula!

“The Land Of The Dead”
The Force-sensitive member of the team is drawn into a seemingly endless nightmare as she confronts the Fire Dragon - the Dark Side warrior she killed a year ago!

“The Fiery Abyss”
Infiltrate an Imperial science station positioned in the depths of a quiet but far from dormant volcano!

“The Pool Of Peril”
Did I mention the base being inside a volcano?

“The Death Mist”
An Imperial scientist seeks to defect, bringing news of a monstrous new weapon his laboratory is about to test!

“Stark Treachery”
Betrayed by a trusted ally! Or were they? Either way, the Rebels are captured by the governor of the Imperial weapons facility, and their only hope of escape is to fly an escape pod out of the forge planet’s gravity well!

“Doom Of The Dictator”
Series finale! Can the Rebels overthrow the governor, free the imprisoned scientists and escape the volcano base before the self-destruct sequence reaches zero?

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